I deserve a game that gives me the upper hand. After all, the most recent boss I beat in Lost Planet was a gigantic robo spider whose super move consisted of running me over and then sitting on me until I died. Doesn't Doomeru get to be the bully sometimes?
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Unlike my brother, I always look forward to playing game demos. It makes me feel like I've got a new game without spending money, and sometimes they actually let you do something approaching what the full game will offer. There are gross exceptions like Armored Core part 72,000 where the 1 gig demo sticks you in a hologram tutorial and then expects you to applaud, but a few have actually fired me up so much I almost reserved the game. The Riddick demo let you break a guy's neck, for fuck's sake! I was thoroughly impressed with how the developers paced out the Overlord demo. You get your goblins right at the start and you immediately have a chance to sick them on innocent sheep, which is awesome because they jump on the sheep and ride them down. The tutorial directs you to smash some pots, whereupon those enterprising goblins automatically arm themselves with whatever scraps they find. No equipment menus!
The gameworld looks expansive and detailed, and actually all the units reminded me a bit of Shiny's Sacrifice, but I was prepared to ding it for not letting you actually walk around wherever the hell you wanted, ala Kameo, an equally pretty game that was so shallow it was almost convex. I realized why they did this when it came time to direct my minions along a thin path that ran above a river. The developers decided to forego pathfinding AI in favor of invisible rails. The goblins just cannot fall into the water and really, that is a lot better than losing them all the way you could in Pikmin. No reviewer is going to complain about minions not following orders in this game.
Okay, best part of Overlord, and what really makes me consider a purchase, was how I got to try out the fire spell. I'd already had my goblins slaughter some of halflings - the slimes of this game - and then I came upon a group hiding in some brush. I shoot fire at them and the brush goes up in flames...and the halflings start screaming! Oh man, what a great way to make the player want to use magic.
So, you've got easily controllable trash talking goblins, flammable midgets, killable innocents I didn't even mention, and apparently the ability to build a harem. I'm ready for this.
Demo Watch: Overlord
In Lost Planet without a map: Part One
It all boils down to the bosses in this game. Running around the cold killing flying Acrid aliens and Pirates is actually pretty fun, so long as you don't try to jump or stray too far off the beaten path. The problem comes when you get to a boss, and it ends up being an overpowered big bad guy who can do whatever it wants and you can't run or take cover anywhere. I'd really like to know why I'm fighting this big pink mech that has a smoke screen and unlimited missiles and no discernible attack pattern, and I have to scramble around to get into a fallen-over mech before she destroys me, but in the process she's damaging the mech before I can even get into it.
Did I mention the main character's name was Wayne? And when you're running around and decide you want to invert Y-axis or adjust aim sensitivity the game DOESN'T FRIGGING PAUSE and instead just blocks the screen with a big menu that you have to navigate while all the while poor Wayne's precious T. Engine is running out of heat.
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So back to that boss: every time you die, you restart right in front of the mech, and she's already shooting at you. A smart person would dash for the mech and get in and go, but it doesn't really work that well. The same button that gets you into the mech also picks up weapons, including any weapons attached to the mech. So, run for the mech, accidentally detach the rocket launcher, get shot, get into the mech, waste time attaching the rocket launcher, get shot, then with half your health left figure out a way to beat the pink mech. Phew.
Everyone, bosses included, shoots Wayne when he's down, which I've begun to take personally as I move along in Lost Planet. All the explosions and insanity might actually be exciting if the controls were better. Any success I have against these odds isn't due to any innate videogame skill so much as to being good at working around Lost Planet's bullshit limitations.
Did I mention the hero's name was Wayne?
And one other thing, to put things in perspective for the people at Capcom who made this game. This is a real mech.
That's a Timber Wolf. It weighs 75 tons and it's as tall as a building. That jackass with the broken helmet next to it is what Wayne looks like to me in his pansy-ass "Vital Suit." This isn't even my favorite Battletech model, but it could still stomp anything in Lost Planet plus Robocop without even slowing down.
